LANSING, Mich. — Delhi Township has unveiled a five-year plan for working on diversity equity and inclusion.
"I know there's lots of ways to just sort of fancy things up and make it seem like you're engaged in DEI, but that's not what our board is interested in, Our board is interested in the real work," said Township Manager, Tracy Miller.
Miller said the plan includes three big ideas.
"The first one really focuses around recognizing that without data, without hard information and facts, it's really hard to develop policy to move forward," she said.
During the first and second year, the Delhi Township board will analyze Census data to get a better understanding of the people who live here. In 2022, Miller said they'll send out a community wide survey.
"We're going to specifically include some diversity, equity and inclusion questions in that survey to try to get a sense of how the community feels and what direction we need to move in," she explained.
The next big idea is evaluating and reforming policies and ordinances, which could take up to five years.
"We're going to go through our ordinances and our codes and evaluate whether or not any of them have a disproportionate or unintended impact on one population more than another population," Miller said.
The third big idea is identifying and implementing strategic relationships with their partners.
"Our partners might include the school districts, the sheriff's department, or local and regional businesses. So identify strategic partnerships as they pertain to DEI and then figure out ways that we can all work together to achieve common goals," Miller said.
Township Trustee Dianne Warfield said the plan grew from a desire to make the township more welcoming for everyone.
With a predominately white board, sometimes they have a narrow scope, she said.
"We need to open that we need to widen it so that people do feel welcome and included, and not just a part of the community, but they are the community," Warfield said.
The township plans to start the work this year.
Want to see more local news? Visit the FOX47News Website.
Stay in touch with us anytime, anywhere.
Sign up for newsletters emailed to your inbox.
Select from these options: Neighborhood News, Breaking News, Severe Weather, School Closings, Daily Headlines, and Daily Forecasts.
